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That's me and our friend Steve from Las Vegas who was out in FL while we were passing by.

While it would have been nice to stay in the Florida Keys longer, we had more places to see and friends to meet. First stop while back on the "mainland" was Biscayne Bay. My Las Vegas friend, Steve, and his family were vacationing in Florida.They rented a catamaran for the day and invited us to go sailing with them. Score! (We love being on the water, and would one day like to live on a boat.)  It was great to catch up with Steve and Beverly (they are two of the nicest, most fun people we know!), and get a nice view of Miami from the water. 

And speaking of boats, we happened to be parked in Fort Lauderdale right in time for Trawler Fest, a big old boat show featuring the kind of boats/yachts that are not only livable, but some of them are so sea-worthy they can cross the Atlantic. Since I'd like to live on a boat one day, I wanted Karen to see the boats, to see what she thought of the whole thing. Might have been a mistake though…. After five minutes of touring some yachts, she was ready to move in and "set sail"! 

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One of Karen's favorite trawlers at the yacht show.

After leaving Fort Lauderdale, we headed to Orlando… and to Disney World. Karen hadn't been there in ages and I dont even remember the last time I was there, so for Christmas, Karen's parents got us passes. We stayed in Disney's Fort Wilderness, which is convenient to all the theme parks. In one day we did both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The next day we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios, which pleasantly surprised me. The whole park is designed in an art deco, Hollywood heydey style that was done really nicely. As far as the rides go, our favorites were the Rockin' Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror (Karen thought it was pretty cute to NOT tell me what the Tower of Terror actually did, prior to going on). 

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Yup, he hung out with Disney characters all day and even had a beer with Mickey.

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Karen gives a more detailed post of our Disney adventure on her blog RIGHT HERE

More on Florida to come…